June 12, 2006
Back in the office and things are cooking. Our three ad salespeople have carried us into record-breaking territory. This is a beautiful thing to come home to I must say.

Mark Boardman forwarded me a new phrase that applies to us and our website:

"But how do media institutions make that leap to new media? They face the quandary of 'Tarzan economics,' a phrase adopted by several speakers. As old media swing on vines through the digital jungle, they sometimes must let go of one income stream before they can grasp the next one.

"Fortunately for people in broadcasting, they have the luxury of not letting go of the first vine quite yet, Pizzi said in a panel discussion. Adding broadcasting to new media creates 'one of the most powerful synergies going,' he said. 'It’s your game to lose.'”

Gus Walker just got back from Nashville and has this report:

"Went to Nashville over the weekend. Big doin's there. CMA Festival. Mucho touristas with those Doper Roper/Toby Keith cowboys hats . . . in all colors (yech). never seen so many in my life. like being in Dizzyland with all those mouse ear caps. Also had a cowboy mime painted all silver. he would stand like a statue then jump out and scare the snot out of tourists. What is it with that silver stuff?
—Gus

So the scaring tourists thing is catching on. Hmmmmm.

My road warrior daughter called from a rental car outside West Columbia, Texas. She flew into Houston, then drove way south for her first financial presentation. Got to the West Columbia Resort at about ten to seven, only to find out the resort restaurant closes at two on Sunday. The desk clerk recommended the Sonic Drive-in. Being much like her father, The Deen wasn't in the mood for fast food, so she decided to find some local flavor and drove to the heart of West Columbia and stopped at a convenience store to query the locals on excellent local cuisine. She met a line of customers inside and asked them for a good recommendation. A woman in a tanktop and blue pedal pushers, holding an 84 ounce of Diet Coke says, "Honey, you need to try the Bayside Restaurant, but you gotta tell em you want your burger well done." Nobody else had a nomination and so, against all good sense, my daughter, once again acting like you know who, decides to try the Bayside, where it turns out she can get grilled salmon for $6.99, 30 shrimp for $15 and two lobster tails for $12. What's wrong with this picture? Well, when she asked the 17-year-old waiter what he would recommend, he said, and I quote, "The cheeseburger." Needless to say, everything was deep fried and then deep fried again just to make sure. She said she ate part of the fries and the deep fried lettuce and went back to the hotel. I asked her what she had learned from all of this and she said, "If someone's holding a barrel of diet coke, it's probably not a good idea to put stock in their eating suggestions."

Now, she's acting like her mother.

" We do not necessarily improve with age: for better or worse we become more like ourselves."
—Sir Peter Hall